Meet Debra Bybee | Hobby Farmer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Debra Bybee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi DEBRA, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
The idea to start a small farm to teach others about gardening, self-sufficiency skills, farm animals and to make money while doing it came after my diagnosis and recovery from breast cancer. We had always wanted a small farm and decided that life can be cut short and now was the time to live our dream. We bought an acre and a quarter of bare land in Arizona seven years ago in 2017 and began our journey.

I have a background in teaching children and have always had a great love of children and animals. We saw the small farm as an opportunity to have groups of school children come to see what it was like to live on a small farm and learn about farm animals and where our food comes from. My husband and I also lived behind my grandparents for four years and from my grandfather we learned how to grow our own food. We wanted to share not only the food we grew in our garden, but to teach others in our community how to grow healthy food themselves. My grandmother inspired me with her example to learn self-sufficiency skills like baking, canning, and drying food. All of these skills that we had learned helped us to take our experiences and use them not only to help ourselves, but to inspire others to make their lives better with this important knowledge.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My background is in teaching elementary education and preschool. I wanted to be a teacher because of teachers who believed in me and encouraged me in my talents in elementary school and high school. I taught in private and public schools in Arizona. Raising a family, personal health concerns and caring for my mother caused me to leave the profession for a period. My favorite compliment I ever had as a teacher was from a parent from another teacher’s classroom. She said, “Why do all of the children from your class come out of your room so happy every day and not the children from my child’s classroom?” It was my most proud moment that my students loved school and learning and that they were happy there! I also brought my therapy Australian shepherd dog to my school to visit the special needs children and I was amazed at the impact of animals for children.

My background in teaching and working with children greatly influenced my desire to keep children in my life through continued teaching on our small farm to small groups of children.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Our favorite places to visit, that we would love to show people, would be the Grand Canyon in all of its beauty and the area around Page, Arizona. My husband grew up around that area and it is beautiful. Especially Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell and the Vermillion Cliffs.

We also love the fishing in the Apache White Mountain area of Arizona. We enjoy fishing for trout in the lakes there in the summers. Greer is a small town and a beautiful place to stay there. We would recommend eating at Molly Butler Lodge and Restaurant for a delicious steak.

If we were staying in town we would recommend the Hale Centre Theatre in Gilbert, AZ for a very well done family-friendly show. Downtown Gilbert has many great restaurants to eat at. We enjoy Joe’s Real BBQ.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband Floyd Bybee is a great support in this effort! I am the dreamer and he is the muscle and often the brains in this operation! He built our incredible chicken run and coop from just a picture! He has built all of our garden grow boxes in our garden as well as set up our amazing pvc watering system and timers that keep everything alive in our garden. He encourages and believes in my sometimes crazy ideas! He has been an amazing and supportive partner through this grand adventure!

Instagram: @hobbyfarmdream

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